'Go West' good advice for American students

Many people who visit the campuses of our major universities come away with a common observation: There seem to be a lot of Asian and Asian-American college students on campus, a far higher proportion than the percentage of Asians in our total population.This observation, of course, is true. It is not only that Asian-Americans are far more likely to attend college, but students from Asian countries make up a majority of the international students attending U.S. institutions.

Some Americans might be surprised, though, that China  once our dreaded enemy and a hotbed of religious persecution and human rights violations  sends more students to the U.S. than any other country. According to a report from the Institute of International Education in Washington, D.C., China's 54,466 students in U.S. colleges and universities account for more than 10% of the total 514,723 international students.

Japan is second with 46,872, and India is third with 42,337. We might rationalize the large number of Chinese and Indian students because they represent the two most-populous countries in the world. But Japan isn't that big; neither are Korea and Taiwan, which are fourth and fifth on the list. The remaining countries in the top 10 are (in order) Canada, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico and Turkey, a country striving to be European, but lying mostly in Asia.

The Western European country sending the most students to the U.S. is Germany, which had 9,800 here last year, good for 11th on the list. Germany is followed by Malaysia, Brazil, United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

Did you think that some European countries might have been higher on the list? There are, after all, some good reasons for that: 1) Europe is about half as far away as Asia; transportation is faster and easier.

2) Western Europe is more affluent than most Asian countries and escaped the economic meltdown that hit Asia a few years back.

3) More Americans come from European backgrounds than from Asian; Europeans use the same alphabet, and many know English.

Europeans, however, apparently don't respect an American education as much as Asians do. Here's the funny part about all of this: Where do U.S. students go for an international education? Yep, you guessed it. We send our kids to Europe. The biggest education destination for U.S. international students is the U.K., which attracted more than 27,000 American students  more than 21% of the total in the 1998-99 academic year.

Following in order after the U.K. are Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, Australia, Germany, Costa Rica, Israel and Ireland. Not one Asian country is in the top 10, though Japan is 11th and China 12th.

It's great that Asian students are coming here. For one thing, it's good business for us. The Institute of International Education estimates that international students generate more than $12 billion a year in tuition, fees, living expenses and other revenues. Illinois' $557 million-plus estimate ranks us fifth among the states.

But there is another benefit we should be deriving. We have a lot to learn from Asian cultures, especially about the importance of education, diligence, family, mutual respect, teamwork and other values that increasingly seem less important to Europeans . . . and Americans.

Do we really want our students to come back from educational sojourns armed with the smug complacency, condescension, xenophobia, laziness and rearview-mirror look at life that has gripped Europe in recent years?

This doesn't apply to every European, of course, but the increase in these unattractive characteristics is difficult to ignore.

So, maybe we should reciprocate a little more with our neighbors in the East. I think an educational stint in Korea, Taiwan or Thailand might be more beneficial for American students than lollygagging around Europe for a year. Who knows? At least they might learn something about a couple of old-fashioned concepts that seem to have faded away recently: work and discipline.

Joe Cappo's e-mail address is [email protected]. If your message is intended as a letter to the editor, please include your name, address and telephone number for verification purposes.